Fish and Chips and Flannel
by HecateA
Summary: Orchestrating this date has involved countless logistics, but Ted's thought of everything down to the clothes. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

Hogwarts: Assignment 8, History of Magic, Task #1 Write about a pairing made from two people of different purity (e.g. pureblood/muggle-born, halfblood/muggle)

**Warnings:** NA

* * *

**Stacked with:** Hogwarts; Fall Bingo; Shipping Wars

**Individual Challenge(s): **Black Ribbon; Black Ribbon Redux; Day Out; Slytherin MC; Hufflepuff MC; Seeds; Bow Before the Blacks; Old Shoes; Summer Vacation; Trope it Up C (Secret Relationship); Themes & Things A (Secrets); Themes & Things B (Escape); Themes & Things D (Gym bag/duffle); Themes & Things E (Dress/skirt); Rian-Russo Inversion; Real Family; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Word Count:**845

* * *

_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Andromeda Black/Ted Tonks (Pure Traitors)

**List (Prompt): **Fall Medium 2 (Sharing clothes)

* * *

**Fish and Chips and Flannel **

Andromeda Black had never done anything like this before and the racing beat of her heart reminded her of this. She was a good girl. Bellatrix was the wild child of the family and Narcissa was the little ball of nerves. She was a good, balanced, reliable, mellow daughter.

But here was Andromeda anyways, at the tail end of a complicatedly orchestrated lie to get an hour of free time at Diagon Alley—reportedly to spend time with some of the Goyle's daughters and their cousins who were visiting from Belgium. But really she was standing outside Ackermann's Apothecary, waiting for…

"Hey," Ted said, slipping out of the shop. "Sorry, my shift took longer than expected, the shipment of bulk Grindylow eggs came in late and I had to package all of them and…"

"Don't worry," Andromeda said. She couldn't help but smile when she saw him, even if school had only been out for two months. That gap between his teeth, the brown curls, the freckles over his nose and cheeks… She wanted to lean in and kiss them or touch his hair.

But not yet; not in Diagon Alley. Andromeda didn't know where they were going, it had seemed too risky to put an address or a place name down on paper, even with all the other precautions and wards that they were taking to keep their letters safe and sound. She just knew that Ted had a plan and she'd been giddy about it for the last week.

"Okay," he said quietly. He cleared his throat and then looked at his shoes for a second. He smiled when he looked at her again. "Okay, umm, so when you leave Diagon Alley, turn right and walk until you hit Reynold's. Turn left, it's the restaurant with the chalkboard in front of it… they sell fish and chips. Nothing ritzy, but it's basically a Muggle delicacy, a very good first date, you'll… you'll love this."

Andromeda smiled. "Okay. Okay, umm, I'll go first and you can find me there?"

"Right," Ted said. Then he cleared his throat. "Umm, another thing… you look lovely, but you'll, umm… you'll stick out in a Muggle crowd."

"Oh," Andromeda said. She looked down at the dress she'd picked today. She'd tried to pick something plain enough—Bellatrix had even commented today on how boring she'd looked that morning. "I'm sorry, I tried…"

"No, it's fine, don't worry," Ted said. "And, umm, like I said you look lovely, it's just that maybe you're _too _lovely…"

Andromeda couldn't help but smile to herself, though she did look around furtively.

"Okay," Ted said. "Well, here, you can… umm…"

He passed her a bag.

"Sorry," he said. "It's the best I could do."

"Okay," Andromeda smiled.

"Okay," she nodded. "So I'll, umm… I'll head out…"

"I'll change at The Three Broomsticks and follow you out," Andromeda nodded.

"Okay," he said.

"Okay."

"Okay," he said again. "Okay, we can stand here saying okay for a really long time."

"Yes, you should go," Andromeda said. "I'm not sure what fish and chips is, but I think I'm hungry for it."

Ted smiled and twitched, as if he was going to kiss her cheek, but then he disappeared.

Not yet. Soon, they could kiss each other and hold hands across the table and maybe she'd steal food off his plate. That would be nice. But first, she had to look Muggle so that they could look like a Muggle couple.

She made her way to The Three Broomsticks and locked herself in the bathroom. She looked into the bag to see what Muggle clothes Ted had packed for her.

There was a band t-shirt, for that one group called The Beatles whose songs he always hummed. The bottom of the letter 'B' was chipping away a little bit, proving that this shirt had been well-loved. Then there was a grey and black and red checkered shirt made of a soft, soft fabric—she'd seen him wear it at Hogsmeade all the time, she thought it must be one of his favourite shirts, but she'd never felt how soft that material was. There was also a pair of jeans—they must have been his jeans, but he'd cut them off so that they looked like shorts. He'd thought of giving her a belt too, which was great because he was bigger than her. The clothes felt so foreign and strange, the fabrics all felt different than she had anticipated. But she felt… she felt like she was going on a date to eat fish and chips, whatever that was. And the flannel shirt smelled like soap and sage and felt like a hug from him.

She put her hair up in a high ponytail and took a deep breath, running her hands over the flannel shirt. She didn't know if this was how all Muggleborn or halfblood girls dressed for their dates, but she knew it was how she'd dress for hers. She wondered if he'd let her keep the shirt after they were all done.

It was quite soft.


End file.
